Loft Bedroom Makeover

Before...

After!

Well this blog has been sadly ignored for awhile...the semester flew by and now it's already December 15th, crazy.  I hadn't been feeling very inspired to do much photo taking because of a dead camera battery and busy schedule, but then a few weeks ago I finally spent some saved dollars on a new camera, and upgraded to a Canon Rebel sl1! So I've been starting to play with it a bit and wanted to share a few pictures of my loft bedroom, which Will helped me redo last year.  I live in a really unique garage apartment here in Lexington, but I've never posted anything about it.  Here is a first glimpse.  

When I moved in, my landlord didn't expect me to use this crawl space as a sleeping area, just storage, so he hadn't finished it off.  It's actually a pretty spacious little loft, so I threw my mattress up there right away, and he installed a ladder.  It just stayed that way for awhile, but then I kind of got tired of staring up at the ugly pipe.  Will enthusiastically volunteered to lead my home repair project because he has a lot of experience doing this kind of work.  He cut out new pieces of wood to cover the exposed insulation, and then built a beam around the pipe and across the ceiling, in which he cut holes and installed recessed lighting.  I sanded the walls down and painted them with white stain; I like using stain because the grain of the wood shows through.  I also sanded and re-stained the window, which is such an awesome feature - I love having an octagon window in my bedroom!  Not a lot of extra space up there, so it's decorated minimally with a lambskin my parents gave me, and some glass blown balloons I picked up on the island of Murano, during a trip to Venice.  Clean and cozy.  It feels like sleeping in the coolest tent ever!  The whole project cost under $250, which is another item to add to the list of why my landlord loves having me as a tenant :)

Playing Carpenter

You guys!  I built this bookshelf!  Yes, it is a simple design (ladder style), and yes, it is maybe a little over the top with the paint job...but I had an idea of what I wanted, and I started the project, and I finished it, and that is an awesome feeling.  The whole thing cost about $10.  I picked up some old boards, put on some paint, measured angles, drilled holes, put in screws, leaned it against the wall, and voila!  I'm still deciding exactly how to fill all the shelves.  It's part of my room redo (That wall color is new, too.).  Before and after pictures of the room will be shared...

Room Redo: Sneak Peak

During this time that I'm home, I want to help my parents redo some rooms of the house.  They're still busy finishing up the school year, so I am tackling my bedroom alone.  It was last decorated when we first moved, and I designed the whole room.  Not bad for a 6th grader, but it is in need of a serious update and clearing out.  It's turning into a major project because everything is changing - colors, furniture, room organization, etc.  Here's a sneak peak!  These are some fabrics I picked out, and below, a before and after of a piece of furniture I worked on.  It started out a bright and stained purple. Now it's...another bright color.  The room is really starting to come together and I'm excited about it; pics of the process and finished look will be posted :)

The Letter-Writing Project

 

Before I left for Luzerne, I was digging through an old desk drawer and stumbled across the address book I took there as a student 8 years ago.  It was part of my letter writing box, as we didn't have phone or internet access during the camp, and were only allowed to communicate via snail-mail.  I never used the book much (we just exchanged email addresses and aim names), but I never got rid of it because it had amazing pictures of telephones from all over the world decorating its pages.  Coming across it now, and still thinking it's really cool, I decided to undo the binding, cut out the pictures, and use them as envelope liners.  And the letter-writing project began!  I packed the same letter writing box I used 8 years ago, started making my own envelopes (each one different from the other), and am busy popping them in the mail.  Send me your address!  I would love to share some handwritten stories with you.